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March 31, 2012

In Conversation With... George R.R. Martin (TIFF Bell Lightbox)

Posted by the Flea at 08:48 AM

Geek & Sundry

Felicia Day has taken on a new producing role with her new YouTube channel.

"I didn't want to make mini-TV; I wanted to make web video that really is a vehicle for community building and for people taking something out of each of the shows and incorporating in their own life," Day tells The Hollywood Reporter. "Every single show has that in mind: that you don't just passively consume it. You are participating around the video with the community and in your own life."
Posted by the Flea at 08:47 AM

Blood & Chrome teaser trailer

Syfy has officially announced that "Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome" will not go forward as a TV series, but the web series may still happen.

Posted by the Flea at 08:44 AM

Norah Jones - How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart?

Hat tip to Beautiful Atrocities.

Posted by the Flea at 08:42 AM

March 30, 2012

Blood Of The Vikings (2001)

Blood of the Vikings was a 5 part 2001 BBC Television documentary series that traced the legacy of the Vikings in the British Isles through a genetics survey.

Part I - First Blood, Part II - Invasion, Part III - The Sea Road, Part IV - Rulers, Part V - Last of the Vikings.

Posted by the Flea at 08:48 AM

From the fury of the Northmen deliver us, O Lord!

"In 1961, a Norwegian couple unearthed a Norse site in Newfoundland. A new Historica Minute dramatizes that discovery, and paints a picture of the final moments of life in the ancient Viking village."

Posted by the Flea at 08:47 AM

Anita and the wolves

"According to TNT Magazine, the woman got to know the pack at the Polar Zoo in Salangsdalen, Norway, which is the world’s northernmost zoo. After spending two years regularly seeing them, she returned following a two-month absence."

Posted by the Flea at 08:44 AM

Berit Margrethe Oskal - Eamifámut

Posted by the Flea at 08:42 AM

March 29, 2012

Tell No One

Tell No One are Luke White and Remi Weekes (hat tip to Manaf).

Dynamic Blooms from Tell No One on Vimeo.

"As individuals they are writers and directors. As Tell No One they experiment with video cameras. Intended to be a peek into their experimental process, posting their on-going ideas, inspirations and processes."

Forest from Tell No One on Vimeo.

Posted by the Flea at 08:48 AM

How to Dance Goth

"Last night at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco, the wonderful Hubba Hubba Revue unveiled (hurr!) Jim Sweeney, Lara Miranda and friends’ How to Dance Goth – the first volume in HH’s Educational Film Dance Instruction series:"

Posted by the Flea at 08:47 AM

Where the Wild Things Are (as read by Christopher Walken)

Posted by the Flea at 08:44 AM

WhoMadeWho - Inside World

Posted by the Flea at 08:42 AM

March 28, 2012

Viking Women and the Sea Serpent (1957)

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 edition.

True to the sagas of old, Viking women, in a true spirit of feminism, decide that they simply cannot live without their men who've been taken prisoner by some evil pelt-wearing dude from another fjord.
Posted by the Flea at 08:28 AM

Execution by elephant

Death by elephant was once relatively common in areas where elephants had been domesticated.

Posted by the Flea at 08:27 AM

Some penguins turn to a life of crime

Posted by the Flea at 08:24 AM

Ratatat - Falcon Jab

Posted by the Flea at 08:22 AM

March 27, 2012

If I were super-rich

This is the sort of thing I like to think I'd do with the money.

Hollywood director James Cameron has returned to the surface after plunging nearly 11km (seven miles) down to the deepest place in the ocean, the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific.

He made the solo descent in a submarine called Deepsea Challenger, taking over two hours to reach the bottom. He spent more than four hours exploring the ocean floor, before a speedy ascent back to the surface.
Posted by the Flea at 08:28 AM

At last

How to cut up bell peppers without having to remove seeds or membrane.

Posted by the Flea at 08:27 AM

Painting on water

Posted by the Flea at 08:24 AM

Get People - Macaw

Posted by the Flea at 08:22 AM

March 26, 2012

Ten reasons we hate Mass Effect 3's ending

Lots of spoilers.* Though arguably the ending itself is what spoils the story.

* I realize this is inside baseball if you are not a gamer and/or don't work in the game industry but there are useful pointers here for what to avoid if you are interested in epic storytelling in any medium.

Posted by the Flea at 06:28 AM

Puritanism strikes again

For more than a century, the humble but robust digestive has been Britain’s favourite biscuit for dunking into tea.

But now the makers of the leading McVitie’s brand are facing a backlash over a change to the traditional recipe that many loyal customers have found hard to swallow.

In a bid to make its products more healthy, United Biscuits has slashed the amount of saturated fat in the snacks by an ambitious 80 per cent.

The more they make us hate our little pleasures the more we shall hate ourselves and the fatter we will get. All that rage has to go somewhere.

Posted by the Flea at 06:27 AM

As I explained to my new dentist

While the artist was working away on my most recent tattoo (left shoulder) I was texting away to my friends (right hand, "hey, I'm getting a tattoo"). This made me look hard as nails to the artist and her colleagues but the fact is needles don't bother me much.

Poking around my teeth is a different story.

Posted by the Flea at 06:24 AM

The new SimCity game engine

SimCity Gameplay Lead Dan Moskowitz describes the concepts of Resources, Units, Maps, and Agents and how they affect the complex simulation behind SimCity.
Posted by the Flea at 06:23 AM

Citizens! - Reptile

Hat tip to Beautiful Atrocities.

Posted by the Flea at 06:22 AM

March 25, 2012

Carl Jung - The Wisdom of The Dream: A Life of Dreams (1989)

Part I of a three part series including Part II Inheritance of Dreams and Part III A World of Dreams.

Posted by the Flea at 08:48 AM

Knock knock

Jenna-Louise Coleman is the new Who companion.

Earlier this week, "Doctor Who" showrunner Steven Moffat introduced Jenna-Louise Coleman as The Doctor's next companion, following the upcoming departure of Karen Gillan's Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill's Rory Williams during the seventh season later this year.
Posted by the Flea at 08:44 AM

Arkona - Stenka Na Stenku

"I play in a metal band"
"Cool, what instrument do you play?"
"Flute"

Posted by the Flea at 08:42 AM

March 24, 2012

The Coming of the Martians

Termintor_projection_on_Mars.jpg

Amateur astronomers are puzzling over a seemingly anomalous cloud that has shown up on images of Mars taken over the past few days.

Why you should care.

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.
Posted by the Flea at 08:28 AM

Weird tales

China Miéville is teaching a course in Weird Fiction at the University of Warwick

I’ve been thinking about the traditional notion of the “sublime,” which was always (by Kant, Schopenhauer, et al) distinguished from the “Beautiful,” as containing a kind of horror at the immeasurable scale of it. I think what the Weird can do is question the arbitrary distinction between the Beautiful and the Sublime, and operate as a kind of Sublime Backwash, so that the numinous incomparable awesome slips back from “mountains” and “forests,” into the everyday. So…the Weird as radicalised quotidian Sublime.

Interview at the link.

Posted by the Flea at 08:27 AM

A Mountain Of One - Bones

Posted by the Flea at 08:24 AM

March 23, 2012

Tallwood

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Michael Green designs high-rises out of wood, including a proposed 30-story building in Vancouver.

A wooden skyscraper may seem like far-fetched idea to those who live in cities built from concrete and steel, but architect Michael Green has developed an innovative wooden tower for Vancouver that could spark a renaissance in using wood to build urban high-rise projects. If realized, Green’s Tallwood tower could be one of the greenest skyscrapers in the world – and at 30 stories, perhaps the tallest of its kind. Best of all, Green has documented his research and design specifications and generously published the results in an open source paper – a kind of instruction manual for building really tall wood buildings.
Posted by the Flea at 07:48 AM

The birthday "paradox"

"In a room of just 23 people there’s a 50-50 chance of two people having the same birthday. In a room of 75 there’s a 99.9% chance of two people matching."

Posted by the Flea at 07:47 AM

HP Z1

"Easily add a hard drive, upgrade memory, or access the graphics card by snapping it open. And enjoy the control of easily swapping out parts on your own."

Posted by the Flea at 07:44 AM

Public Image Ltd. - Death Disco

Posted by the Flea at 07:42 AM

March 22, 2012

Ormurin Langi (The Long Serpent)

"The Faroese kvæði about the Norwegian king Olav Tryggvason. The dance is the traditional Faroese ringdance."

It's the strong sense of community that moves me here. The music, the rhythm, the closeness. A strong Viking people facing difficult winters in the far north supporting each other in a close community. This dance is a validation of that support. My ancestors were there. I wish I could be there too.
Posted by the Flea at 08:48 AM

Was I wrong about the afterlife? No.

By Christopher Hitchens, as told to Art Levine.

And as one would expect, given my intellectual predilections, there was no angelic being or robed dime-store Jesus to greet me as my near-death experience quickly progressed into what might be termed my death experience (DE). Instead, as my hallucinatory journey continued, I was greeted warmly by the predictable neural holograms of Tom Paine, Voltaire, and George Orwell, who all bore a striking resemblance to their paintings, or, in Orwell’s case, to the penetrating photo of him on the cover of my book Why Orwell Matters. Not for a moment did I believe they were “real.” Even so, Orwell, never one to tolerate cant of any kind, furthered my resolve: “This is all a delusion, my dear boy, but enjoy it while you can.”
Posted by the Flea at 08:47 AM

Put Alan Turing on the next £10 note

We call upon the Treasury to request the Bank of England to consider depicting Alan Turing when Series F £10 banknotes are designed.

Posted by the Flea at 08:44 AM

Bukkene Bruse - Numedalshalling

Posted by the Flea at 08:43 AM

March 21, 2012

Wes Ball - Ruin (2012)

An animated short set in a post-apocalyptic universe.

RUIN from OddBall Animation on Vimeo.

Posted by the Flea at 08:58 AM

East Germany's transformation

Photographer Stefan Koppelkamm travelled through East Germany just after the Berlin Wall fell.

Posted by the Flea at 08:57 AM

Siouxsie and The Banshees - All Tomorrow's Parties

Posted by the Flea at 08:52 AM

March 20, 2012

Louis Vuitton - Fall Winter 2011/2012 by Marc Jacobs

A little late with this one but loving the Philip Glass soundtrack.

Posted by the Flea at 08:48 AM

The British Columbia Viking Ship Project

"Munin" is moored at the Vancouver Maritime Museum and sails the Vancouver harbour waters several times per week year.

If you're interested and find yourself in the area, you can contact the "Munin" crew and book a berth on the next sailing.
Posted by the Flea at 08:47 AM

Marita Solberg - Solveig's Song (Edvard Grieg - Peer Gynt )

Posted by the Flea at 08:44 AM

March 19, 2012

The Northern Lights

Courtesy of NASA, from the International Space Station.

Posted by the Flea at 05:58 AM

A claim

Rear-Admiral Sir John Forster Woodward describes the reception at his return from the Falklands in 1982.

“I wasn’t even properly debriefed. Nobody seemed to want to know.” The civil service had its own welcome. “Usually if you have been the victor in a major military event, there is some acclaim. Mine was 'a claim’ from the people who do the accounts, saying, 'We have been looking at your entertainment expenditure as admiral and observe that you haven’t spent anything over the last three months.

"So we have revised your allowance downwards and backdated it. You now owe us £600.’ That was my reward. I didn’t bother to say I had been entertaining the Argentinians.”

The important thing to understand about Monty Python is that it isn't comedy, it's documentary.

Posted by the Flea at 05:57 AM

Root cause

Mauritania, a country where 10 to 20% of the population is enslaved, didn't make slavery a crime until 2007. Only one slave owner has been successfully prosecuted.

Photo-essay minus any discussion - or, indeed, understanding - of the ideological basis for slavery in north Africa at the link.

Posted by the Flea at 05:54 AM

Danzig - Killer Wolf

Posted by the Flea at 05:52 AM

March 18, 2012

Neither rain, nor sleep, nor lion

lion_attack.jpg

Almost 200 years ago mailmen were attacked by a lion as they travelled through the English countryside.

Despite the terrified workers fleeing for their lives as the Exeter Mail Coach was ambushed by an escaped circus beast, the post still arrived at its final destination just 45 minutes late.
Posted by the Flea at 09:48 AM

RSVP

Get your Game of Thrones Season 2 premiere party invitations!

Posted by the Flea at 09:47 AM

Rob Higgs' corkscrew contraption

If you are not a middle-aged man this might look like overkill.

Posted by the Flea at 09:44 AM

The Black Dog - Bass Mantra

Posted by the Flea at 09:42 AM

March 17, 2012

Artists @ Google presents Cirque du Soleil: TOTEM

Artists at Google hosts creative and technical leaders from Cirque du Soleil's TOTEM. They discussed creative inspirations from the show, and some behind-the-scenes insights. Of course, it wouldn't be Cirque du Soleil without a little magic, so the talk also featured a performance.

And some outrageous outrage from the comments.

Totem, a sexualized, racist appropriation of the overly romantic view of the white man who massacred and oppressed the indigenous tribal people of their colonies. Make the Indian woman a sex object, scantily dressed, make the Indian man a homoerotic version. Put them on frigging rolling skates. I despised this production and found it highly offensive in their use of Native American culture, in order to sexualize rollerskating on a platform. Shame, shame, shame.

Seriously, they don't sound promising but the roller skates are awesome.

Posted by the Flea at 06:58 AM

Southern lights

As seen from the International Space Station.

Posted by the Flea at 06:57 AM

New Order: Blue Monday

Posted by the Flea at 06:54 AM

March 16, 2012

Pagan Metal: A Documentary (2009)

This is what I watched/listened to while starting preparations for a gallon of short mead for the second season premier of Game of Thrones. The documentary features Korpiklaani, Primordial, Finntroll, Ensiferum, Leaves' Eyes, Turisas, and Tyr. I post it because these interviews range beyond metal and pagan metal into issues of national culture, cultural survival, immigration, multiculturalism and unemployment from a white, working class perspective that is typically excluded from European public discourse.

In case none of that is of interest, I should point out the file kicks off with a racy promotional trailer for another Bill Zebub project (the latter being nsfw due to bare breasted metal babes).

Posted by the Flea at 08:58 AM

Elder Scrolls Online

Bethesda is set to announce an Elder Scrolls MMO in May.

An industry source that wishes to remain anonymous revealed the name of the new MMO to us, and confirmed that the game would take place a full millennium before The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Using the Elder Scrolls Wiki timeline as a guide, Elder Scrolls Online will likely take place during the “Second Era,” or several hundred years before any of the other Elder Scrolls games. This information was corroborated by two additional sources before publication.

Elder Scrolls Online will have three playable factions, according to the tipster. Not much is known about the factions, except each is represented by one of three animals: A lion, a dragon, and a bird of prey (either a phoenix or an eagle, we aren’t sure).
Posted by the Flea at 08:57 AM

Primordial - God to the Godless

Posted by the Flea at 08:54 AM

March 15, 2012

Gareth Pugh Fall/Winter 2012

Gareth Pugh Fall/Winter 2012 still images.

Posted by the Flea at 10:48 AM

The display is outrageous, it's stunning, it's incredible

Early reviews of the new iPad are in.

Posted by the Flea at 10:47 AM

The Alan Partridge Air Bass Dance

Hat tip to Mr. Edge.

Posted by the Flea at 10:44 AM

Gary Numan - Music for Chameleons

Posted by the Flea at 10:42 AM

March 14, 2012

Spend of an era

The Encyclopedia Britannica, in continuous print since it was first published in Edinburgh in 1768, is cutting its dead tree edition.

An online subscription costs around £45 ($70) per year and the company recently launched a set of apps ranging between £1.20 ($1.99) and £3 ($4.99) per month.

The company said it will keep selling print editions until the current stock of around 4,000 sets runs out.

Far less expensive, far more portable and subject to comparison with free, open source competitors. A tragedy!

On the minus side, I have a friend who used to have Britannica salesmen stop by and give their pitches as a form of entertainment (which turned out to be less than amusing for the poor Britannica reps). Now he'll have to find a new hobby.

Posted by the Flea at 08:48 AM

Imitation wants to be free

Regulars are shocked their local, a Southampton pub called The Hobbit, has run afoul of the rights holders to some Tolkien trademarks.

Student Heather Cartwright, who set up a "Save the Hobbit" Facebook page which has more than 3,000 likes, said: "I was completely shocked by it. It's great to see so many people showing support.

"How long do we need to protect works for? Do we protect the works of Mozart and Shakespeare?" she added.
Posted by the Flea at 08:44 AM

Red Panda!

Posted by the Flea at 08:43 AM

Current 93 - Tamlin

Posted by the Flea at 08:42 AM

March 13, 2012

Moebius Redux: A Life in Pictures (2007)

Jean Giraud, R.I.P. (via Boing Boing).

Moebius defined the style of Metal Hurlant/Heavy Metal, a surreal, madcap, sometimes grotesque science fictional visual style that is often imitated but which Moebius himself produced to high spec and in such great amounts.

Posted by the Flea at 06:08 AM

Sickle and mistletoe also not optional

Let us pray in the nude and wear hooded robes in our cells. Also, if you happen to be a pagan prisoner.

Now one unnamed inmate at Frankland prison, a high security jail in Durham, has claimed that he is being ‘discriminated against’ because he is not allowed to pray wearing a ‘druid-style’ hooded robe in his cell.

In a letter to prisoners’ magazine Inside Time last week, he said some inmates were allowed to use scarves to cover their heads during prayer and that it ‘wasn’t fair’ that pagan prisoners were banned from wearing a hooded robe.

He said: ‘Why can I not wear my hooded robe?
Posted by the Flea at 06:07 AM

SimCity Announce Trailer

"Talk about one sentence ruining an entire video."

Posted by the Flea at 06:04 AM

Jon & Vangelis - State of Independence

Posted by the Flea at 06:02 AM

March 12, 2012

True Norwegian Black Metal (2007)

An introduction to the Black Metal scene of Bergen, Norway.

"There are so many of the sheep character who are drawn to it as fans. There are so many low lifes among the crowd; there are so many who are there for the music and nothing else . You don't perform Black Metal unless you are a warrior. Black Metal is a war against what everyone knows.

As long as nature is not allowed to rule by the law of nature, there will always be kings and there will always be slaves."

And idiot VICE journalists, as Gaahl proceeds to demonstrate.

Posted by the Flea at 04:18 AM

Impaled Northern Moonforest - Return Of The Necrowizard

Posted by the Flea at 04:14 AM

Wardruna - Kauna

Posted by the Flea at 04:11 AM

March 11, 2012

Chanel - Cruise 2012 | The Tale of a Fairy

A short film by Karl Lagerfeld.

Posted by the Flea at 09:48 AM

Sistina

A Sistine Chapel panorama (hat tip to the Father of the Flea).

Posted by the Flea at 09:47 AM

Journey - Game Review

This is what games look like now (hat tip to Manaf).

Posted by the Flea at 09:44 AM

Aleah - Vapour

Posted by the Flea at 09:43 AM

March 10, 2012

Authors@Google: Anne Rice

It's a big ad for The Wolf Gift (<--- see what I did there?).

It's also fantastically tedious; yet again the same book and the same character but... werewolf! Also, Google clearly recruited their biggest Anne Rice fan to conduct the interview. It shows.

Posted by the Flea at 04:48 AM

Adventures in customer service: FedEx

You have been connected to Edward .
Flea: Hello Edward,
Edward : Hello Flea, thanks for visiting FedEx.ca! How may I help you today?
Flea: I am looking for a contact email or the correct postal address to file a complaint to FedEx regarding the billing of a shipment and, more importantly, regarding your telephone customer service.
Flea: This information should be made clearly available at your website and it is not.
Flea: "FedEx is committed to delivering quality service, especially when you need support. Just e-mail, write or call us at 1.800.GoFedEx 1.800.463.3339."
Flea: Yet no email address is apparent.
Flea: I would be grateful if you could provide me with the contact name of the manager for FedEx customer service in Canada.
Edward : We do not have a general email address, the mailing address is 5985 Explorer Drive, Mississauga, ON., L4W 5K6
Flea: I am not looking for a general email address. I am looking for a FedEx Customer Support email address.
Edward : We do not have one
Flea: Please refer to: http://www.fedex.com/ca_english/contactus/
Flea: Please read the sentence underneath the words "Contact Us"
Flea: You can now refer me to your manager.
Flea: Thank you.
Edward : I am sorry but there are no manager on this chat service, to speak to one directly you would need to contact 1-800-463-3339 and ask to speak to a manager at extension 100
Edward : The link on the site for Questions or feedback is where you would file any type of complaint
Flea: The website clearly specifies email. You apparently do not have a web browser handly.
Flea: "handy"
Flea: "Contact Us: Just e-mail, write or call us."
Edward : Yes I do I am sorry that the information is misleading but we do not have a customer service support email address available
Flea: In that case, I have something else to add to my letter to FedEx, including the fact your Customer Service is unaware your main Customer Service portal for Canada offers "e-mail" service but does not in fact do so. I take it you have no intention of alerting anyone to the problem.
Flea: Do you have a contact name for me or am I supposed to send my letter to the address you have provided and hope somebody reads it?
Edward : You may direct this to our CEO Lisa Lisson
Flea: Thank you.

Posted by the Flea at 04:47 AM

Community Channel - Nice To Meet Me

Posted by the Flea at 04:44 AM

Eurythmics - Would I Lie To You?

Posted by the Flea at 04:42 AM

March 09, 2012

Harry Potter Wizards Collection

Harry_Potter_Wizards_Collection.JPG

The Harry Potter Wizards Collection is now available for pre-order.

Contains 31 discs, inclusive of all content ever previously released, in addition to over 5 hours of never before seen special features, in a limited and numbered edition.

But mainly a clever box.

Posted by the Flea at 08:07 AM

Cold case

Archaeologists have solved an ancient cold case mystery by scanning the head of an Iron Age "murder victim".

The preserved head of the second century Briton - known as The Worsley Man due to his location near Salford - was found in a peat bog in 1958.

The scan shows he as bludgeoned over the head, garrotted and then beheaded - leading archaeologists to suspect he was sacrificed.
Posted by the Flea at 08:04 AM

Holidays at home are great

Posted by the Flea at 08:03 AM

Valravn - Seersken

I am running a pair of 100 watt near field reference monitors with six inch glass aramid composite woofers. It turns out they don't go loud enough.

Posted by the Flea at 08:02 AM

March 08, 2012

iPad (3rd generation)

Apple 's new iPad: expert reaction.

Forget all of the minor tweaks and incremental updates Apple has made to its third-generation tablet. The faster processor, the upgrade to 4G data, the improved camera--it's all housekeeping. It's the stuff it had to do. It's the stuff any manufacturer could have done. Now, increasing the iPad's screen resolution to 2,048x1,536 pixels that exceeds any current tablet or laptop--that's a move only Apple has the scale and industry muscle to pull off…

The question: Why doesn't the new iPad have a name?

The longer Apple execs talked about the tablet computer's new features -- better screen, faster connection -- without actually giving it a name, the more anxious the People of the Internet became.

Retina related: It's all very well to sing hosanna about the 3.1 million pixel display but I can't see it on my old school HD monitor.

Posted by the Flea at 05:48 AM

СЛАВА!

Yesterday's iPad launch branding fail is only the first of many now that Steve Jobs is no longer with us. Soviet space propaganda posters from 1958-1963 show how past masters did it.

Posted by the Flea at 05:47 AM

Forgotten Slave Leia Footage

A gratuitous contribution on my part.

Posted by the Flea at 05:44 AM

Emeli Sandé - Next To Me

Posted by the Flea at 05:42 AM

March 07, 2012

Wang Shu

Wang-Shu_Ningbo_Museum.jpg

Wang Shu has won the 2012 Pritzker prize for architecture, the first Chinese national to do so.

Yesterday, the Hyatt Foundation announced Wang Shu as the 2012 laureate for the Pritzker Prize. If you’re first thought reading this is “Wait, who?!” then you’re not alone. His work is fantastic, even if it’s unfamiliar to nearly everyone outside of architecture, and unfamiliar to a sizable number of architects, too. I’ve been reading reactions to the news of his selection, trying to gauge if other folks are as surprised as I am by his recognition. It’s surprising not because his work doesn’t deserve the recognition, but because the committee selected the architectural equivalent of “a band so cool you haven’t even heard of them yet.”

Related and above: The Ningbo History Museum. More here and here.

Posted by the Flea at 08:58 AM

The meanings of gang tattoos

Explained by Canadian Border Protection (hat tip to Mr. Jané).

Posted by the Flea at 08:57 AM

Lipton Limone - Miranda Kerr Glitter Lounge

The empty life of a painted whore in a shabby hotel bar. Kurt Weill prepared me for everything except the lemonade.

Posted by the Flea at 08:54 AM

The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored

Posted by the Flea at 08:52 AM

March 06, 2012

Sagee Manor

Sagee_Manor.JPG

Today's real estate porn is a 50 acre estate in North Carolina.

We are developing a plan to sell Sagee Manor in 2012, including listing the property. In the meantime, if you wish to learn more in regards to a possible interest in purchasing the estate, please contact us directly or through your representative.

Posted by the Flea at 08:28 AM

Modern day mummies

Already, more than 1500 people across the world have contacted Summum, the world’s only mummification company, to be mummified after they die. A snip at £40,000!

Posted by the Flea at 08:27 AM

Heads up, all witches in striped socks

Woman prays tornado/funnel cloud away from her Kentucky home March 2, 2012.

Posted by the Flea at 08:24 AM

Kult - Zegarmistrz Światła Purpurowy

Posted by the Flea at 08:22 AM

March 05, 2012

Red Eye Remembers Andrew Breitbart

Posted by the Flea at 06:24 AM

The The - Violence of Truth

Posted by the Flea at 06:22 AM

March 04, 2012

Ralph McQuarrie, R.I.P.

mcquarrie_vader.jpg

Star Wars artist Ralph McQuarrie has died, aged 82.

The conceptual designer created the look of characters including Darth Vader, Chewbacca and R2-D2 and C-3PO.

He also worked on the original Battlestar Galactica TV series and Steven Spielberg films E.T. and Cocoon, for which he won an Oscar.
Posted by the Flea at 07:07 AM

Steambox

Is this a photo of Valve's rumoured Steambox console?

Posted by the Flea at 07:04 AM

Myth and Parable - Hidden Knowledge in Old Norse Myths

"In this video I am discussing comparative mythology using examples from the ancient Indian epos Mahabharata, the myth of Krishna and the Gopis, as well as ancient Mystery cult and the myth of Isis and Osiris as understood by Mystery initiates in the Classical age. These examples to throw light on how Old Norse myths ought to be read - as parables."

Posted by the Flea at 07:03 AM

Electric Wizard - Funeralopolis

Posted by the Flea at 07:02 AM

March 03, 2012

The Mindscape of Alan Moore (2003)

"The Mindscape of Alan Moore is a 2003 feature documentary which chronicles the life and work of Alan Moore, author of several acclaimed graphic novels, including From Hell, Watchmen and V for Vendetta."

Posted by the Flea at 08:48 AM

All these icy moons, including Europa

A Nasa spacecraft has detected oxygen around one of Saturn's icy moons, Dione. The discovery suggests oxygen may also be present in other places nearby more amenable to life.

Dione's sister moon, Enceladus is thought to harbour a liquid ocean below its icy surface. The same is thought to be true of Europa, Callisto and Ganymede which orbit Jupiter.
Posted by the Flea at 08:47 AM

Eigenharp Alpha

Now wanting an Eigenharp. Though having one would mean learning how to play one.

Meanwhile, at the Cantina.

Posted by the Flea at 08:44 AM

Gary Numan - I Dream of Wires

Posted by the Flea at 08:42 AM

March 02, 2012

Royal Marines

HMS_Dauntless_commissioning_ceremony.jpg

"With further additions to the amphibious fleet, and a wide range of new equipment coming into service, the Royal Marines are as ready as ever to meet the nation's need for a flexible force that can poise at sea, and intervene in areas of trouble at an early stage."

Images at the link including HMS Dauntless' commissioning ceremony, above.

Posted by the Flea at 06:48 AM

A wizard's home

Measuring 50 feet across, the Hogwarts Castle model built for the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone has more than 2,500 fibre optic lights to simulate lantern torches and students passing through hallways.

'Everything to the right of the viaduct is in fact Durham Cathedral. But the profile has been changed so that there are tall, pointy spires so there’s plenty of theatrical exaggeration. It’s pretty extravagant, I have to say.'
Posted by the Flea at 06:47 AM

We, who are not fallen, but were always down

Letter from the prostitute that didn’t want saving, 1858 (hat tip to Nadya).

That which is commonly, but untruly called virtue, I gave away. You reverend Mr Philanthropist—what call you virtue? Is it not the principle, the essence, which keeps watch and ward over the conduct, the substance, the materiality? No such principle ever kept watch and ward over me, and I repeat that I never lost that which I never had – my virtue.
Posted by the Flea at 06:44 AM

Dead Can Dance - Rakim

Posted by the Flea at 06:42 AM